Some Brother printers can be installed using the drivers that are included with Puppy. However, the Brother website offers a large collection of Linux drivers for their models. Here are the steps to install one.

DEBBI

The Brother downloads are available in either DEB or RPM format, but you will use the DEB versions. To install the packages, you need the "Debian-Brother Installer". Download and install debbi-1.2.pet from the attachment below. It copies the file debbi to the folder /root/my-applications/bin.

This little program will extract the contents of a DEB package to your hard drive and run the post-install script. You will use it for both printer and scanner drivers.

A few old Brother models also require the "csh" shell instead of the "bash" shell used by Puppy. See the list here under Pre-required Procedure (6). If you have one of these printers, install the csh-6.16.00-i486.pet from below before continuing.

You will download two files - the LPR driver and the CUPS wrapper driver. Get the DEB versions. Select Save to Disk and store them in /root. As an example, let's assume that you downloaded the files mfc210clpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb and cupswrapperMFC210C-1.0.2-3.i386.deb.

Go to your /root folder and press the back-tick key (this is usually the lower-case ~ key above Tab). This opens a terminal window. To display a list of files, type:

Code:

ls

Now type:

Code:

debbi mfc210clpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb

followed by

Code:

debbi cupswrapperMFC210C-1.0.2-3.i386.deb

This procedure is an ideal situation for using Tab Completion to avoid having to type the whole filename. Try typing:

Code:

debbi <space> mfc <tab> <enter>
debbi <space> cups <tab> <enter>

In most cases, you can ignore any warning messages from the debbi script.

Debbi installs the printer driver and puts a PPD file in the folder /usr/share/cups/model. Depending on your model, it may also add a printer in CUPS attached to a USB port, ready to use.

Note: If your printer is networked, delete this USB printer and let CUPS discover the actual device. See below for more information about networked printers. If CUPS cannot detect the remote printer, read How to Install your Printer in Puppy for some hints.

Note: Occasionally, the auto-installed USB printer may not work. Delete it and let CUPS rediscover the printer. Add it again.

However, your printer setup needs another step. The Brother driver keeps its own printer configuration settings separate from CUPS. In these settings, the default paper size may be set to A4. So if you are using Letter size, you must manually change it.

Go to /usr/local/Brother/.../inf and locate the file brxxxrc, where xxx is the name of your printer. With newer models, look in /opt/Brother. Open the file and change the PaperType from A4 to Letter.

Run the CUPS wizard and go to Manage Printers. Print a test page for the new printer.

DEBBI-PET-MAKER

Debbi v1.3 has a new tool called debbi-pet-maker. It creates a ready-to-use PET installer from the Brother Debian driver packages.

1. Create a temporary folder with a descriptive name, like brother_mfcj470dw-3.00. It MUST have a version number on the end.
2. Copy the two Brother DEB files into the folder.
3. Go into the folder, open a terminal window and run: debbi-pet-maker
4. The PET will be saved in the parent folder.
5. Copy it to a safe location for the next time you need to install the printer.

Debbi-pet-maker can also make combo print/scan PETs. Just copy the two printer DEBs and the matching brscan DEB into your source folder.

NETWORK PRINTERS

If you are using a Puppy with CUPS 1.3, CUPS may auto-detect your printer with a device URI like

Code:

socket://192.168.2.15

However, in newer Puppies with CUPS 1.4, the URI may look like

Code:

lpd://BRN_B7DD77/BINARY_P1

When you try to print, CUPS will fail with the error message "Unable to locate". This is because CUPS needs a way of looking up the IP address that matches the printer name.

Locate your scanner in the lists and download the corresponding driver. Also check for any additional instructions that may apply to your device. Then install it using debbi:

Code:

debbi brscan2-0.2.4-0.i386.deb

Reboot and run Xsane from the Graphic menu. Ignore the warning message about running as root.

Peasyscan is a light-weight alternative to the Xsane image scanner program. It uses the same backend tools as Xsane, but with a simpler user interface. Get it here. (Some newer Puppies already have Peasyscan.) The installer adds a menu entry under Graphic.

Note that with Brother printers, you must select Preferences > Show Advanced Options in order to see the scanning controls.

NETWORK SCANNING

Brother has its own tool for setting up a networked scanner. The program name varies with the version of brscan that you installed. For example, determine the unit's IP address and run a command like:

Code:

brsaneconfig4 -a name=MyBrother model=MFC-J430W ip=aaa.bbb.cc.dd

If you are already using the hosts file for your printer, use this instead: (thank you to gyro)

although I'm very new (30 days) with puppy, Im very happy that I tested and installed it. The performance of Ubuntu, Mandriva and FluxFlux caused me head aches over the last 6 month, when I changed from XP to Linux. Puppy in RAM is an excellent solution for my EeePC 901.

I succeded within short to install in addition to puppy 4.2
WLAN, CUPS printers in my office, Java, Thunderbird, TV USB stick
and other programs, due this wonderful Discussion Forum!
Excellent work! I even use my puppy notebook now for my work.

Now I encountered as a newcomer a first problem with the so simple described installation of brother printers.

1. installed tcsh-6.16.00-i486.pet , I learned from the forum.
2. followed the instructions of rcrsn51 strictly

# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
# Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
# any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
# more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
# this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
# Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
#

Can someone help to get my brother installed ??
Pls in "normal" words, I'm not a linux freak, just an old man.
Only to mention it: I did not follow the instruction:
Start the installation process with your printer turned ON.

It looks like some of these wrapper scripts are written for the C-shell instead of the Bourne shell used by Puppy. I'm impressed by the fact that you decided to install the tcsh shell instead!

From your error message, it appears that the only problem is with the actual "exit(0)" command. I would try replacing these lines with

Code:

exit 0

or maybe just

Code:

exit

Hi rcrsn51 don't be impressed! Sorry when I did stupid things.
The problem must be indeed the shell problem. tried to start brlpdwrapperMFC210C; hangs also at a certain line.
Changing exit command did not help.
Should I remove tcsh shell and install another shell (Bourne?) instead ???
Can you give pls instructions where to get this ??
Thanks a lot!

Having played with this some more, I don't think that you need to change the script. Instead do the following:

1. Go to /usr/local/Brother/.../cupswrapper and run the command
Code:
tcsh cupswrapperxxx -i

This should run the installer script without errors using the tcsh shell.

2. Go to the folder /usr/lib/cups/filter and open the file brlpdwrapperMFC210C in a text editor. Change the top line to
Code:
#! /usr/bin/tcsh

This will make the printer filter run in the correct shell.

3. Go to /usr/lib and locate the file "libbrcompij2.so.1.0.2". You need to create another file named "libbrcompij2.so.1". Right-click on this file and select "Link". Change the name to:
Code:
libbrcompij2.so.1

Just carefully delete the ".0.2" off the end.

If this works correctly, you should see the second file with an arrow on its icon. This is a symlink to the other file.

I installed a Brother MFC7345N yesterday as a network printer, using the instructions posted by rcrsn51.

In my case, I had to download a compatible driver since the Brother site didn't have one for my exact model. As we also have a Mac, I looked at the drivers on the Brother CD for the Mac. They had drivers for the MFC7340, the MFC7345N and the MFC7440N. The size and dates of the latter two were identical.

I therefore chose the driver for the MFC7440N listed on the Brother site and downloaded the rpms for cupswrapper and the lpd driver.

One difference from the instructions: by default, the download is to the /root directory rather than the /directory. When I tried to extract and install from this site, the response to "sh cupswrapperMFC7440N-2.0.2 -i" was couldn't find an LPD file.

I finally copied the Brother directory to /usr/local and then the command worked fine.

Note that for me, the sh command worked but the tcsh command didn't.

Note that the device URI that Brother recommends for their networked printers is lpd:/ipaddress/queue, where queue by default is binary_p1.

But still..........
I do like Linux, I do like Puppy, but why oh why does it take so much effort to install a printer.
Having to use 3rd party programming downloaded from a forum with an explicit explanation on how to handle things.

Why isn't Linux more straightforward.

Paraphrasing Neil Armstrong:
Installing a non top selling printer is a small step for the Linux guru but a giant leap for the average computer user.

Let's do some math. Brother has Linux drivers for about 200 models. When they are turned into installable PETs for Puppy, each one is about 1 MB in size. So the total Brother driver package is about 200 MB. Compare this to the 100 MB size of a Puppy ISO and you can see the problem.

On the other hand, HP combines all their Linux printer drivers into a single package which is only 400 KB and is easier to use than their Windows installers.

Do you have any suggestions on how to make your particular situation better?

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